Chapter 1076: Neither Coerced from Within, Nor Threatened from Without

Li Yashi was currently putting it into practice; he was combining the Ming experience with the local situation in the West, wanting to derive a method for camp-estates that was adapted to local conditions from his practice.

He discovered that running the camp-estate method in the West was much easier than returning land in the Ming. It was only at this moment that he thoroughly understood the fundamental meaning of the two characters "Fan Shen" (Turning Over). Likewise, he had only one word for Hou Yuzhao: admiration. The Ming had never lacked capable people, but how to let those capable people exert their value was a true test of a monarch's talent.

That Hou Yuzhao was able to accomplish the return of land and consolidate it was entirely because he only looked at where one stood; putting one's stance first was extremely dangerous and required a wise monarch to steer. Similar systems included the Tax Audit Institute, the Secret Memorial system, and the Dissection Institute; all of these required a wise and sagely monarch to steer.

Returning land in the Ming was extremely difficult.

For instance, the court granting land was a matter fraught with a contradiction that was hard to resolve.

The Ming possessed a vast number of self-cultivating farmers. Even if the world was plagued by land annexation, the number of self-cultivating farmers still exceeded twenty percent. These twenty percent of self-cultivating farmers nearly became the fuse for the failure of the land return.

The land of self-cultivating farmers was completely different from that of tenant farmers and domestic slaves. Self-cultivating farmers owned a portion of the fields, though the amounts varied. How to distribute the land collected back became a problem that made local officials throughout Zhejiang feel terrified.

Before the court carried out the land return, many self-cultivating farmers all divided their families in advance. With three or four sons, one household immediately split into four or five. This way, no matter how much land a household had, they could occupy and demand more.

These self-cultivating farmers were called wealthy farmers in the countryside, and these wealthy farmers were the actual "figures of standing" in the rural areas.

When the wealthy farmers began to divide their families, immediately, all farming households began to divide their families. Even three-year-old children in the family were set up as separate households, all just to wait for the court to grant land. Later, the rumors became chaotic, saying that only those with a family could count as a household, and marriages in the countryside immediately went wild.

Soon, the court stipulated that the results of the population census of the thirteenth year of Wanli would be the standard. Because it involved the Four Corvée Silver—that is, the collection of the poll tax—using the results of the thirteenth year of Wanli census avoided these messy matters. After all, Zhejiang would be carrying out the Single Whip Reform later, so it counted as preparation in advance.

The court felt that doing this was fair, while the wealthy farmers felt it was unfair to them, because the land of many wealthy households actually exceeded the standard and needed to be returned, rather than receiving land. The wealthy households immediately refused to cooperate and joined forces with the local gentry to oppose the implementation of the land return order.

This was just like the story of "My family really has an ox."

The families of the poor also felt it was unfair. They had waited so long for fairness and justice, only to get this result? Those wealthy households usually relied on having many brothers and good relations with the local gentry to run rampant in the countryside!

Before the land return, the wealthy households could act like tyrants; after the land return, the wealthy households could still act like tyrants.

The poor were also dissatisfied with this kind of fairness; this was not the fairness they wanted, and the thought of the majority was to become the new local gentry.

Only those who had truly lived in the countryside could understand the twists and turns within.

In the narrative of the Emperor and the court officials, the annexation of land by those who ate meat was the consequence of moral decay: they would take advantage of natural and man-made disasters to annex land through immoral acts. When morality could not restrain the behavior of these local gentry, then one could only rely on violence.

This narrative was of course fine, but in Hou Yuzhao's "Turning Over," Li Yashi saw another kind of narrative, which was that the annexation methods of the local gentry and wealthy households mainly utilized the number of people; more explicitly, it was having more sons.

The local gentry and wealthy households had enough land to raise descendants. Naturally, being of the same clan and tribe, with many people, they could run rampant in the countryside. In the conflicts and natural and man-made disasters of the countryside, the side with more people would naturally and inevitably annex more land. This land would continuously circulate within the same clan and tribe, eventually completing the annexation.

The Emperor and the court officials had a top-down perspective, while the perspective provided by Hou Yuzhao was a bottom-up one.

Returning land looked like fair treatment, but in reality, it was not fair at all. Even if the court returned land justly, these deep-rooted clans and surnames would still concentrate the distributed land back into their own hands. It was equivalent to saying that after all the tossing and turning, it was all for nothing, wasting national strength in vain, with no effect.

The wealthy households joined forces with the local gentry in dissatisfaction, while the poor wanted to truly turn over. For a time, the whole city was in an uproar. Soon, Hou Yuzhao reacted.

He immediately ordered an investigation back to the first year of Wanli, allowing poor families to report illegal acts. Once verified, they would be severely punished.

Hou Yuzhao used many thunderous methods in returning land in Zhejiang.

For example, some local gentry who gathered to cause trouble at the yamen entrance, idlers who took money to bolster their momentum, and wealthy households who acted as accomplices were all dispatched by Hou Yuzhao to the Nine Camps of Zhejiang and captured on the spot.

This decision could be described as extremely bold; a slight carelessness would lead to officials forcing the people to rebel.

In Hou Yuzhao's view, daring to cause trouble at the yamen entrance meant there was definitely something wrong at the bottom, so they had to oppose the land return to protect their status and position, and only then could they protect everything they had. Hou Yuzhao conducted a more rigorous investigation into these people.

Li Yashi had no such distress in running the camp-field method in Portugal, because Portugal had almost no self-cultivating farmers. To be precise, the vast majority were serfs. Painting on a blank sheet of paper was countless times simpler than Hou Yuzhao's task.

Moreover, the person applying the thunder was Antonio, not him, Li Yashi. He only needed to hand the thorns over to Antonio to deal with.

As for how Antonio dealt with them, Li Yashi did not care. Antonio's method of dealing with them was: to start great prisons. The Han gentry also understood that he could not do anything more complex or reasonable even if he tried.

Li Yashi sent off the Barbarian Regional Military Commissioner Huo Xinchen. He watched the sails disappear into the vast Atlantic and let out a heavy sigh. The next time he went back, it would be as a corpse, and perhaps not even the corpse would make it back. The West's trial for heretics was the stake; after being burned to ashes, they would be directly scattered into the river.

He had hesitated more than once. Just a moment ago, he even wanted to get back on that flagship. He had an infinite attachment to life, an instinctive fear of danger, and a strong desire for a stable life. In his mind, there was always a voice loudly telling him to return to the Ming.

But in the end, he restrained his thoughts.

It was normal for people to have desires, fears, and worries, and the existence of reason overcame these distracting thoughts.

Li Yashi fell into busyness. Soon, the food taster Antonio assigned to Li Yashi was poisoned to death. The food taster was someone who specifically tasted dishes. After Li Yashi officially became a Minister of State, Antonio raised his security to the same level as his own.

The food taster being poisoned to death represented yet another assassination.

And for this assassination, the murderer even left a message. A note was placed next to the food taster's corpse, on which a sentence was written, the gist of which was: Li Yashi will not die a good death; once Antonio is done using him, he will execute Li Yashi to appease those old nobles who are willing to submit but are terrified!

This was a scheme to sow discord. However, "when the birds are gone, the good bow is put away; when the crafty rabbits are dead, the hunting dog is cooked" was an idiom, and there was another idiom called "merit so great it shakes the master."

If Li Yashi really managed the Portuguese camp-estates well, Antonio killing him would be a matter of course, with sufficient reasons. This might be his destined fate. Whether he defected to the liberator Antonio or the Lion King Henry, this was his ultimate end.

But Li Yashi could not care about these things at all. The attempt at the camp-estate method encountered many difficulties; he had no time to think about these.

Li Yashi had thought too much. A normal monarch would indeed do these things, but Antonio was not very normal. To be precise, Antonio was always that captain, not a king. The things a king should do, he would not do any of them.

He had no talent for politics and had no idea how to deal with these matters at all.

The Sword Saint Marcus had known Antonio since childhood, ran ships with him, guarded the gate for him, helped him win the war of founding the nation, fought the Spanish God of War to a draw, cleared out resistance forces from within, and served as an envoy to the Ming many times. Marcus completely fit the situation of "merit so great it shakes the master" and "birds gone, bow put away," but Antonio had never thought about getting rid of the Sword Saint at all.

On the contrary, the reason for Antonio's dispatch of troops this time was said to be to give Portugal a bright future. In fact, this was the reason given to him by the Han gentry, which looked exceptionally noble and grand, but his own purpose was actually only one: to avenge Marcus.

Why was the Portuguese palace leaking like a sieve? The principle was the same as the Ming goods tickets; it was the result of collusion between inside and outside. The Spanish had excellent relations with these nobles. Even Marcus's death was the result of inside-outside collusion. Those palace people who provided convenience and gave access were all personnel planted by these nobles.

Antonio could not deal with Felipe, but these nobles within the country who colluded with the Spanish and remained motionless when the Spanish invaded, Antonio would definitely kill them.

Antonio did not care about anything, even throwing state affairs to Li Yashi, just to take revenge.

"Execute them all." Li Yashi finished reading the dossiers and gave his suggestion. Whether to execute them or not depended entirely on Antonio's decision.

Calling them dossiers, in fact, most only had confessions. It was not very realistic to engage in human evidence, material evidence, and documentary evidence like in the Ming, but these nobles captured by Antonio, their confessions, in which they tried their best to beautify themselves, still showed crimes that were too numerous to record.

Forcibly seizing women and treating human life like grass were already heinous crimes in the Ming. Even if the son of the Chief Grand Secretary dared to do this, he would have to pay a severe price. For example, Yang Shiqi's son brought disaster to the countryside, and Yang Shiqi could only retire, unable to even protect his son.

In treating serfs who dared to resist, the most common practice of these nobles was: kill their whole family and hang them on trees to warn all serfs; this was the end of resistance.

In treating the serfs under their rule, it was no different from treating livestock. Bread mixed with dirt was already merciful; some lords even levied taxes on bread mixed with dirt.

There were even a few nobles who, in order to show off their violence, actually ate the children of those who resisted, making themselves look terrifying and making the serfs fearful.

The local gentry were indeed detestable, and they also existed to a certain extent as man-eaters. However, compared to these nobles who truly ate people and skinned them, even the local gentry became much more pleasant to look at.

Li Yashi originally thought that the West still had half a foot in slavery, but in reality, only half a foot had stepped into feudalism.

Antonio's reply was also very strange. The Portuguese King's reply only had surprise: these people were sent back to Lisbon, and they were still alive?

The Portuguese King's motive for sending the captives back to Lisbon was to show his respect for Li Yashi, a rough-and-tumble style of drinking together, eating meat together, and killing people together.

The former Minister of State Xu Fan liked to talk about rules the most. When Marcus returned from the Ming and killed the palace secretary who was spreading heretical ideas, Xu Fan expressed strong opposition, insisting on a trial no matter what, even if it was just for show. What if accomplices were missed?

Although Antonio had not learned much, it was safer to try the captives before killing them. Otherwise, the King would be somewhat disrespectful to the Minister of State, disrespectful to rules and order.

Only then did Li Yashi thoroughly understand Antonio's strangeness. The evaluations of him by Xu Fan, Marcus, and others were indeed correct. He was indeed completely ignorant of politics and was still acting according to the methods on the ship. Without the Emperor's support, he could only be a captain for the rest of his life.

Li Yashi was as busy as a donkey on a millstone. Likewise, the Ming Emperor Zhu Yijun was also on the millstone. The metropolitan examination in the second month of the twenty-third year of Wanli arrived as scheduled. Surrounding the metropolitan examination, the court was exceptionally busy. Zhu Yijun personally reviewed the mathematics paper produced by the Institute of Physics. Apart from being too difficult, the mathematics paper had no problems at all.

"Let's use this set." Zhu Yijun pondered solemnly and still decided on the set with moderate difficulty. To him, it was moderate difficulty, but to the students, it was the sky collapsing.

Zhang Hong wanted to speak but hesitated, and in the end, did not say it. After the metropolitan examination was over, it was another scene of crying and wailing, knocking heads on the ground. The mathematics paper was harder year by year, and the mathematics paper had a characteristic: right was right, wrong was wrong, which was very easy to quantify, leading to the weight of the mathematics paper becoming higher and higher.

Easy to quantify meant easy to compare, and easy to compare meant one could see very intuitively whether it was fair.

If a Jinshi's mathematics score was outside the top thousand, he would be mocked by the literati and not recognized. This lack of recognition even extended to yamen at all levels, which would subconsciously feel that this person was not smart enough.

This Jinshi would fall completely into the awkward situation of "virtue not matching position."

So much so that by the twenty-third year of Wanli, when all Jinshi quotas were determined, they first looked at mathematics scores. Since the seventeenth year of Wanli, all Jinshi had mathematics scores within the top four hundred. Even the rankings of the palace examination Jinshi were ranked according to mathematics scores. This was the result of the "Dushu Pangtong" (Universal Knowledge of Numbers).

Wang Guoguang led the Dushu Pangtong of the Ming. After Wang Guoguang died, Lü Kun wanted to take the opportunity to stir up trouble but was killed by the Emperor, because Wang Guoguang's posthumous reputation was worth maintaining.

There was a Jinshi from the fourteenth year of Wanli who, by the twenty-third year of Wanli, nearly ten years later, was still settling, having not received an official appointment, just because he passed the Jinshi examination, but his mathematics score was outside the top thousand, and no yamen would accept him.

For appointments in the Ming personnel department, the Ministry of Personnel of course had the final say, but the Ministry of Personnel also had to consider the needs of the yamen using the personnel. Plus, the Ming lacked everything except people who could read with two legs, so this person never received favor and remained until now.

"I know what you want to say; it's just about Wang Yiduan, right? Third rank, seventy-fourth place, mathematics 1230th." Zhu Yijun attached great importance to the metropolitan and palace examinations; this was the most important means for the Ming to select talent. Wang Yiduan got such a mathematics score because he was poor, not because he lacked talent.

Xiong Tingbi was a cowherd, Fan Yuanshan was a live-in son-in-law, and Wang Yiduan was even more miserable than them. Wang Yiduan was from Yu Yao, Zhejiang. His father died early, his mother died in childbirth giving birth to him, and his uncles ate his "juehu" (inheritance of a family without heirs) when he was one year old.

A one-year-old child should have died after being eaten out of his inheritance, but his life was not meant to end. A neighbor could not bear it and told the Zhejiang Nine Camps that were on patrol.

The Zhejiang Nine Camps at that time were not like they were now. At that time, the soldiers of the Nine Camps could not even get enough to eat, so raising a child was really somewhat difficult. After raising him to seven, they really could not raise him anymore and sent him to the Yangji Institute (Charity Institute).

The Yangji Institute was a place that hid filth and held dirt, using the name of charity to engage in the business of buying and selling people. The Yangji Institute sold people to human traffickers, and the human traffickers sold Wang Yiduan to a famous gentry family in Yu Yao.

Wang Yiduan was a domestic slave. That he could read and write was entirely learned by stealing glimpses in the family school.

At twelve, Wang Yiduan's life finally ushered in a turning point. The old lady saw he was clever and allowed him to study in the family school. At eighteen, Wang Yiduan passed the Xiucai examination. Passing the Xiucai examination meant he had the court's grain ration. At twenty-four, he passed the Juren examination, and the following year he passed the Jinshi examination.

His mathematics was not good, not because his virtue did not match his position, but because he was too poor to afford to study and learn mathematics. However, the logic of collective operation had a ruthless background, so no one cared about your miserable fate. If your virtue did not match your position, no one would be willing to use you.

"But the essence of the imperial examination is to select talent; it can only be so." Zhu Yijun sealed the mathematics papers after his vermilion approval into a box. The Institute of Physics would seal the institute before producing the papers to avoid the leakage of questions.

The purpose of the imperial examination was to select talent. If one did not do well in mathematics, it did not necessarily mean they were a fool, but if one did well in mathematics, their thinking ability must be very strong and their logic meticulous.

"I am too soft, benevolent, and quiet; all I have left is the word 'loyalty,' suitable for looking after His Majesty's diet and daily life." Zhang Hong was reprimanded by the Emperor and shook his head, saying: "It would be better if Eunuch Li came back sooner."

"People are not grass or wood; who can be without feelings?" Zhu Yijun shook his head and said. Not to mention Zhang Hong having a soft and benevolent heart, Zhu Yijun would also have it. People were just like this, truly very contradictory.

Li Yougong was completely not of a soft, benevolent, and quiet character. He came from the military, and all he had was decisiveness in killing, never showing mercy when taking action. The common people called him "Li Yama." There were names that were wrong, but there was absolutely no nickname that was called wrong.

Zhu Yijun held a memorial from Wang Jiaping, and after reading it, he looked troubled, signaling Zhang Hong to call the Minister of Justice Wang Jiaping over.

A case occurred in Xuanfu. The matter seemed small, but this case was very typical, so much so that it alarmed the Imperial Carriage, and Zhu Yijun also showed his soft and benevolent side.

Benevolence was never wrong; what was wrong was not being able to distinguish between the light and the heavy, the urgent and the slow.

Wang Jiaping arrived at the Western Study on a small train to wait, and after receiving the summons, he entered the Imperial Study to have an audience with His Majesty.

"The Xuanfu Grassland Case." Zhu Yijun looked at the memorial and asked: "What is the Ministry of Justice's opinion?"

"Handle it according to national law." Wang Jiaping bowed his head and said: "Your Majesty, once this precedent is opened, I fear there will be those who compete to imitate it later. Since there are rules, it is better to handle it according to the rules, and better to handle it according to the law."

There was a local gentry in Xuanfu named Li Jiadong. In the second year of Longqing, he purchased two thousand mu of grassland from the Xuanfu yamen, but there was no record of this in the accounts. That is to say, nominally, the grassland was still in the hands of the Xuanfu yamen, but it had long been sold.

Time flew by. During the Wanli Reform land measurement, this two thousand mu of grassland had all been reclaimed into fields by Li Jiadong's family, and Li Jiadong had also become a local gentry. During the measurement, the Xuanfu yamen clarified the ownership of this grassland.

Although the measurement confirmed the rights, the Xuanfu yamen did not issue a supplementary reclamation certificate. That is to say, in the official accounts, this piece of land was still grassland.

Soon, at the end of the twenty-second year of Wanli, during the Great Audit, the Ministry of Revenue flipped through the old accounts and discovered that the money from the sale of this grassland had not reached the yamen's accounts.

When a deficit appeared in the accounts, it had to be balanced, and the court wanted to take back the ownership of these two thousand mu.

This practice of the Xuanfu yamen was very common in Xuanfu, Datong, Shanxi, and other places. The land was sold, but no accounts were made. The motive for doing so was entirely because the court could not issue military pay at the time, and the local areas could only think of ways themselves.

During the Jiajing and Longqing years, the Ming was still fighting against Andahan. It was one thing not to pay when not fighting, but not to pay when fighting, making people fight on an empty stomach—there was no such reason in the world. But the court had absolutely no silver.

Li Jiadong was even more wronged. What was Xuanfu like back then? The scourge of Andahan's invasion was still continuing. He came from Taiyuan to Xuanfu, bought these two thousand mu of grassland, and took root in Xuanfu, responding to the court's call to protect the border. It was said to be two thousand mu of land, but under the scourge of war, it was worthless garbage!

He spent money to buy land and actively reclaimed it, only to have the court take it back as soon as they said so?

The Xuanfu yamen was also wronged. The court did not give pay or rewards; what could they do? The soldiers mutinied for pay; who would take responsibility for this?

"A penny can stump a hero." Zhu Yijun looked at the memorial in front of him and said with a complex expression: "It was sold back then, and during the Wanli Reform land measurement, the ownership of the fields was determined. Now, as soon as they open their mouths, they want to wipe it out. I still feel it is better to give some silver."

Having been Emperor for twenty-three years, Zhu Yijun discovered that many problems in the Ming were caused by poverty. Many yamen in Xuanfu, Datong, Shanxi, and Shaanxi did this. If they had sold the land and embezzled it into their own hands, Zhu Yijun could have found them and filled this deficit.

But they did not embezzle it; they used it to pay the soldiers for fighting.

"Your Majesty, whether the court has silver or not, this silver cannot be given." Wang Jiaping reminded His Majesty that this was not the time for soft benevolence. In fact, he did not need to remind him; His Majesty knew very well that personnel and financial power were politics.

The court could not take out this silver, because once it was taken out, and the bottom was covered this time, the local yamen would sell official land even more unscrupulously and recklessly. Anyway, the court would eventually cover the bottom. The corruption problems born from this were absolutely not a situation the Emperor wanted to see.

The state machine was ruthless; this ruthlessness meant it had no feelings.

The Emperor knew the basic logic of politics very clearly, which was why he issued edicts twice to re-examine and re-discuss, but did not push it with "My will is decided."

"Order Xuanfu to handle it properly." Zhu Yijun saw Wang Jiaping's insistence and finally adopted the minister's opinion. He said with some emotion: "I farm; reclaiming these two thousand mu of grassland into fields was not easy at all. Reclaiming wasteland is really very troublesome."

Wang Jiaping did not farm, and he did not understand the bitterness of farming. Zhu Yijun believed that he personally engaged in agriculture, and the most bitter chore was reclaiming wasteland. Digging up stones, digging up tree roots, digging up grass roots, digging ditches, and nourishing the land—these tasks Zhu Yijun had personally done many times. While reclaiming, one would even feel despair.

"Your Majesty, do not worry. The local yamen actually have ways. These external officials are considered to be testing the court." Wang Jiaping said with a solemn expression.

On the surface, it was the local yamen hesitating and asking for the Imperial decision, but in reality, it was still the pain caused by the large-scale reduction and exemption of land tax.

The main source of financial revenue for local yamen was land tax. Because of the changes in heaven, the court reduced and exempted land tax again and again. The external officials could not say it directly and could only let the court know through this method.

"The root of the problem lies in the land. In this Xuanfu case, Xuanfu can completely let Li Jiadong continue to farm these two thousand mu of fields, and the local yamen can fill the deficit themselves. The external officials are actually waiting for Your Majesty to ask why the local yamen does not fill this deficit."

"Once Your Majesty asks, the external officials can say that the local area has no money." Wang Jiaping explained the problem inside very clearly.

No matter how clear the court was about this matter, it could not ask. Once asked, it would be put on the scale. The court had already allowed the local yamen to build official factories themselves, which were uniformly managed by the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue of the court, but the pain of reducing and exempting land tax was unavoidable.

Did the Xuanfu yamen really dare to take these two thousand mu of land from Li Jiadong? If it stirred up a civil rebellion, the Xuanfu yamen would be held accountable by the Emperor. In fact, this matter was just a pretext.

Wang Jiaping also knew clearly that many things did not need to be said so clearly. The Emperor had very rich experience in governing, and as long as he took one look, he knew what was going on.

The reason for His Majesty's hesitation was also simple. It was poor before, so there was no way. Now the court had money, so should the old debts be repaid? The ministers' attitude was that they could not repay, and should not repay.

This was not a matter of money, but a matter of organizational operation.

"Then handle it according to what the Minister of Justice said." Zhu Yijun approved Wang Jiaping's opinion and made the final decision.

The opening of the court covering the bottom could not be opened. Once opened, it would be a huge wound that could never heal. Today the court covered the bottom for the local sale of land without accounts back then; tomorrow, it would have to cover the bottom for all the mistakes made by the local yamen.

This was not a question of whether it should be done, but a question of whether it could be done. The court was not an omnipotent god and simply could not cover it.

"Your Majesty is wise." Wang Jiaping also reported the progress of the Western Trade Alliance, which had been successfully established. The candidate for the General Director of the Western Trade Alliance had also been completely determined. Originally, Wang Jiaping felt that setting up the Western Trade Alliance in Guangzhou Prefecture was safer, but in the end, after discussions with the Ministry of Revenue, it was chosen to be in Da Nang.

The geographical location of Da Nang was similar to Ryukyu for the Ming. If Ryukyu and Taiwan were not guarded, and the Three Han were ruins, the importance of Da Nang was not weaker than Ryukyu or Keelung Island. More bluntly, if Da Nang was not under the control of the Ming, Annam would rebel again.

Therefore, setting up the Western Trade Alliance Council in Da Nang was to increase the intensity of rule over Jiaozhi and prevent this backyard of the South Seas from being snatched away by others.

"Last year, Guangzhou issued an additional 12 million guan (strings of cash) in a targeted manner. This year, 6 million guan was set. Luzon added 4 million guan. Does the Western Trade Alliance also need to add 2 million guan?" Zhu Yijun had to face another problem: the over-issuance of Baochao (paper currency).

"Issue it." Zhu Yijun deliberated for a while and finally agreed to issue the currency, but the issuance of currency was not without conditions. If the Western Trade Alliance could not produce goods of equivalent value, it would be reduced.

Zhu Yijun had a soft and benevolent heart toward the Ming hinterland, but toward overseas, he had absolutely no pity at all. ===== CHAPTER 1077 =====